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- 2021
- Working Paper
Extension Request Avoidance Increases Time Stress among Women
By: Ashley V. Whillans, Jaewon Yoon, Aurora Turek and Grant E. Donnelly
In eight studies using archival data, surveys, and experiments, we identify a novel factor that predicts gender differences in time stress and burnout. Across academic and professional settings, women are less likely to ask for more time when working under adjustable...
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- Winter 2021
- Editorial
The Start of Time Smart Leadership
By: Ashley Whillans
The author discusses the concept of “time poverty,” which she defines as “having too many things to do and not enough time to do them.” It is a problem because it undermines happiness and productivity and increases stress. For instance, in 2012, 50 percent of working...
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- 2020
- Tool
Time Smart: Tools for Reclaiming Your Time and Living a Happier Life
There's an 80 percent chance you're poor. Time poor, that is. Four out of five adults report feeling that they have too much to do and not enough time to do it. These time-poor people experience less joy each day. They laugh less. They are less healthy, less...
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- October 7, 2020
- Editorial
Time Confetti and the Broken Promise of Leisure
By: Ashley Whillans
It’s true: we have more time for leisure than we did fifty years ago. But leisure has never been less relaxing, mostly because of the disintermediating effects of our screens. Technology saves us time, but it also takes it away. This is known as the autonomy paradox....
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- 2020
- Book
Time Smart: How to Reclaim Your Time and Live a Happier Life
By: A.V. Whillans
There's an 80 percent chance you're poor. Time poor, that is. Four out of five adults report feeling that they have too much to do and not enough time to do it. These time-poor people experience less joy each day. They laugh less. They are less healthy, less...
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- 2020
- Working Paper
Work Values Shape the Relationship Between Stress and (Un)Happiness
While global wealth has risen over the past few decades, this has not translated into a less stressful life for most people. In fact, stress has risen for people worldwide. Across six studies— including large-scale survey data from over 150 countries—we show that the...
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- 2020
- Article
Service Provider Salience: When Guilt Undermines Consumer Willingness to Buy Time
By: Ashley V. Whillans, Alice Lee-Yoon and Elizabeth W. Dunn
Spending money on time-saving services can improve happiness and reduce stress. Yet many people do not spend money to save time even when they can afford to do so, potentially because they feel guilty about paying other people to complete disliked tasks on their...
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Keywords:
Time;
Identifiable Victim Effect;
Social Support;
Happiness;
Money;
Spending;
Attitudes;
Consumer Behavior
- November 15, 2019
- Editorial
Getting Your Team to Do More Than Meet Deadlines
By: A.V. Whillans, Charlotte Blank, Laura M. Giurge and Laurel Newman
When it comes to our to-do lists, many of us prioritize checking off tasks that are easiest to complete or are due first, regardless of importance—a phenomenon that scholars describe as the “mere urgency” effect. This tendency becomes stronger the busier we are. But...
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- October 2019 (Revised April 2020)
- Case
Carme Ruscalleda: The Chef as an Artist
By: Boris Groysberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Annelena Lobb
In October 2018, Chef Carme Ruscalleda, the most-starred woman chef in the world at the time, closed the doors of her Restaurant Sant Pau (Sant Pau), as she had on almost every night for the past 30 years—this time for the last time. Ruscalleda had opened the...
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- April 4, 2019
- Article
Why We Don't Ask for More Time on Deadlines (But Probably Should)
By: Jaewon Yoon, A.V. Whillans and Grant Donnelly
Deadlines are one of the biggest sources of stress in the workplace. Yet, many are flexible: Your manager might ask you to submit a proposal for a long-term project by Friday, but not plan to look at it until Tuesday. Could asking for more time (when we need it) be a...
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- Article
Time for Happiness: Why the Pursuit of Money Isn't Bringing You Joy—and What Will
By: A.V. Whillans
Adam (real story, fake name) was a good employee who was given a plum project he believed could get him a promotion and a raise. Taking it seemed like the proverbial no-brainer: Work hard, nail the assignment, get more pay. He knew he’d have to put in long days and...
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- 2019
- Working Paper
It Doesn't Hurt to Ask (for More Time): Employees Often Overestimate the Interpersonal Costs of Extension Requests
By: Jaewon Yoon, Grant Donnelly and Ashley V. Whillans
Setting deadlines can improve productivity. Yet, miscalibrated deadlines are a major source of stress, undermining employees’ health and happiness. An effective strategy to maximize the benefits of deadlines while minimizing the costs could be to set task deadlines and...
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- 2018
- Working Paper
Alleviating Time Poverty among the Working Poor: A Pre-Registered Longitudinal Field Experiment
By: Ashley V. Whillans and Colin West
Poverty entails more than a scarcity of material resources—it also involves a shortage of time. To examine the causal benefits of reducing time poverty, we will conduct a longitudinal field experiment in an urban slum in Kenya with a sample of working mothers, a...
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Keywords:
Time;
Money;
Subjective Well-being;
Administrative Costs;
Friction;
Poverty;
Welfare;
Perception
- October 2018 (Revised January 2019)
- Case
The Financial Crisis: Timothy Geithner and the Stress Tests
In February and March 2009, the U.S. economy was in the midst of a terrifying financial and economic crisis. Between the beginning of 2008 and early 2009, four of the 25 largest U.S. financial institutions had failed, and nine of these 25 institutions had taken...
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- 2020
- Working Paper
Buying Time Promotes Relationship Satisfaction
By: A.V. Whillans, Jessie Pow and Michael I. Norton
Six studies (N = 2,285) highlight the role played by time-saving purchases—such as housecleaning and meal delivery services—in promoting relationship satisfaction. Study 1a provides initial survey evidence that time-saving purchases protect relationship satisfaction...
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- 2018
- Chapter
Time, Money, and Subjective Wellbeing
By: Cassie Mogilner, A.V. Whillans and Michael I. Norton
Time and money are scarce and precious resources: people experience stress about having insufficient time and worry about having insufficient money. This chapter reviews research showing that the ways in which people spend their time and money, the tradeoffs that...
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- Article
Olfactory Cues from Romantic Partners and Strangers Moderate Women's Responses to Stress
By: Marlise Hofer, Hanne Collins, Ashley V. Whillans and Frances Chen
The scent of another person can activate memories, trigger emotions, and spark romantic attraction; however, almost nothing is known about whether and how human scents influence responses to stress. In the current study, 96 women were randomly assigned to smell one of...
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- Fall 2017
- Article
Strengthening and Streamlining Bank Capital Regulation
We propose three core principles that should inform the design of bank capital regulation. First, wherever possible, multiple constraints on the minimum level of equity capital should be consolidated into a single constraint. This helps to avoid a distortionary...
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- January–February 2017
- Article
Buying Your Way into Entrepreneurship
By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff
An increasingly popular route to success as a small business owner is “acquisition entrepreneurship”—buying and running an existing operation. If you’re considering such a path, the authors offer practical advice for each stage of the process. Think it through. Do you...
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- May 2014
- Article
Mobile Computing: The Next Platform Rivalry
By: Timothy Bresnahan and Shane Greenstein
Competition to become one of several dominant mobile platforms is intense. Platforms compete for developers, who create applications which make the platform valuable for users. Why doesn't one form of platform governance emerge as superior? This essay will stress the...
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